144 P. 684 | Or. | 1914
delivered the opinion of the court.
On July 23, 1912, the plaintiff loaned to the defendants Robert A. Kletzing and his wife, Lillie E. Kletzing, $1,800 and took their promissory notes therefor, and to secure the payment thereof said defendants executed to the plaintiff an absolute deed of conveyance, conveying to him and his heirs 80 acres of timber land in Lane County. On April 4, 1913, the plaintiff commenced a suit in equity in the Circuit Court of Lane County against said two defendants to obtain a decree declaring said instrument to be a mortgage instead of a deed of conveyance, and for general relief. On April 23, 1913, said court rendered a decree declaring said instrument to be a mortgage to secure the payment of said sum of $1.800 and interest thereon, etc., and for the recovery from said two defendants of the sum of
Robert A. Kletzing and Lillie E. Kletzing are husband and wife, and Ralph H. Kletzing and Louis M. Kletzing are their sons and only children. The sons are young and unmarried, and they and their parents reside together as one family. The complaint sets forth, in substance, most of the above-stated facts, and then alleges, in substance, inter alia, the following: That in August, 1912, the defendant Lillie E. Kletzing entered into a contract with the defendants S. H. Thomas and Minnie E. Thomas, agreeing to purchase from them for the consideration of $3,000 lot 9 in block 10 of Scott’s Addition to Eugene, Lane County, Oregon, at which time she paid them the sum of $1,100 thereon and entered into possession thereof. That on April 25,1913, said Lillie E. Kletzing and her husband, Robert A., assigned to Ralph H. Kletzing all their interest in said contract for the purchase of said lot 9 of block 10 of Scott’s Addition to Eugene, and about the same time executed to him a quitclaim deed of their supposed interest in said lot, at which time the plaintiff alleges that the said Robert A. Kletzing and Lillie E. Kletzing paid to the defendants S. H. Thomas and Minnie E. Thomas the sum of $1,400 to apply upon the purchase price of said lot; that the assignment of the contract for said lot and the said quitclaim deed conveying the said lot to Ralph H. Kletzing are recorded on page 119 of book 101 of the deeds of records of Lane County,
The complaint then alleges, in substance, that Robert A. Kletzing was engaged in business in Eugene, Oregon, under the name of R. A. Kletzing & Sons, and had a stock of goods of the value of $2,000, and that in the summer of 1913 he conveyed said stock of goods, including horses and wagons, to his sons, Ralph H. and Louis M. Kletzing, and that his said sons are continuing said business under the firm name of Kletzing Bros., and that said transfer was made and received without any consideration, and with the intent to hinder and delay this plaintiff in collecting his said mortgage, etc.; that Robert A. Kletzing and Lillie E. Kletzing were insolvent when said assignment and quitclaim deed were made, and when said transfer of said stock
Robert A. and Lillie E. Kletzing filed an answer to said complaint, and Ralph H. Kletzing filed an answer, and Ralph H. and Louis M. Kletzing, as partners, also, answered said complaint. These answers are lengthy, and we will not set out the substance of them further than to say that they denied most of the material allegations of the complaint and set up new matter. The replies put at issue the new matter of the answers. As stated supra, a decree was granted in favor of the plaintiff in part, and the defendants appeal. The plaintiff also appeals from a part of said decree.
The foregoing is the substance of the statements made by the plaintiff, or of what it was agreed he would testify to, if present. According to this statement both Robert A. Kletzing and Ralph H. Kletzing notified the
Robert A., Lillie E., Ralph H. and Louis M. Kletzing were sworn, and testified fully as to the facts of the case, and as to the conversations that they respectively had with the plaintiff. They assert, in positive terms, that they did not make any of the statements that he attributes to them, as stated supra. They admit that he conversed with them to some extent concerning the debt that Robert A. and Lillie E. Kletzing owed him on the said foreclosure decree; but they deny saying what he asserts that they said.
Robert A. Kletzing was a school-teacher in Iowa, and he taught until he lost his hearing. After he became too deaf to teach, he went into another business there, and he financially failed, losing all of his property. He went through bankruptcy before he came to Oregon. After his failure in Iowa, he and his family removed to Wyoming, and he took up a homestead claim about 50
The evidence shows that Ralph H. Kletzing, at the date of the execution of said contract, conveyed to said Thomas said Fairmount property, then owned by him,
Apart from some records that were put in evidence by the plaintiff, his case rests upon his own uncorroborated evidence. His evidence tends to make out his allegations of fraud, but it stands practically alone. The four defendants contradict him on every material point, and testify fully as to the facts. The plaintiff and these four witnesses are unimpeached, and we are unable to say that the plaintiff is entitled to any more credit than either of the four witnesses for the defense. And we cannot accept his evidence as true, when it is contradicted by four witnesses, each of whom being entitled to as much credit as he. The plaintiff and the defendants are interested in the result of the case, and each appears to be intelligent. Hence we are constrained to conclude that the plaintiff has failed fo make out his case, and that there is a strong preponderance of the evidence in favor of the defendants. We find that Ralph H. Kletzing is the owner of said lot 9 in block 10 of Scott’s Addition to Engene, Oregon, and that Ralph H. Kletzing and Louis M. Kletzing own the grocery-store and goods mentioned in the complaint, and that neither Robert A. nor Lillie E. Kletzing has any interest in said lot or said store.
39 Cyc. 104 says:
“A resulting trust never arises out of a contract or agreement between the parties, but arises by implication of law from their acts and conduct apart*218 from any contract, the law implying a trust when the acts of the party to he charged as trustee have been such as are in honesty and fair dealing consistent only with a purpose to hold the property in trust, notwithstanding such party may never have agreed to the trust and may have really intended to resist it. Such a trust cannot be subsequently changed by oral declarations. A resulting trust may arise: (1) Where an estate is purchased in the name of one person, but the money or consideration is paid by another.”
The same volume, on page 118, says:
“It is a well-settled rule of equity, in the absence of statutory provisions otherwise, that when property is paid for with the money or assets of one person, and the title thereto is taken in the name of another person, in the absence of circumstances showing a different intention or understanding, a resulting trust in the property arises in favor of the person whose money' or assets are so used, or persons claiming under him, the controlling question being the ownership of the purchase money, ’ ’ etc.
1 Beach, Trusts and Trustees, Section 151, says:
“Where one person purchases an estate, paying the purchase money and takes the legal title in the name of another, who is a stranger, a resulting trust arises in favor of the purchaser. * * This comes of the well-established principle that the person who pays the purchase price of an estate takes the equitable title. As a principle of equity, this is not now open to controversy. ’ ’
39 Cyc., page 108, says:
“As a general rule the statute of frauds or statute prohibiting parol trusts applies only to trusts expressly created or declared by the parties; and resulting trusts, since they arise by operation of law from facts attending the creation of the legal estate, are not affected by such statutes, and are valid notwithstanding the acts or transactions out of which they arise, rest in parol,*219 and parol evidence is admissible to establish them, and under some statutes such trusts are expressly excepted from the operation of the statute.”
In this state trusts arising by operation of law are excepted from our statute of frauds: Section 805, L. O. L.
20 Cyc., pages 370, 371, says:
“If a debtor holds the bare legal title to property for another and has no beneficial interest therein, it cannot, in the absence of elements of estoppel, be reached and subjected to the payment of his debts, and therefore a conveyance thereof by him to the equitable owner or to a third person at the request of the equitable owner, is not fraudulent as against his creditors. * * It follows that where one who holds real or personal property under a parol trust makes a declaration of trust in accordance with the parol agreement, or con*220 veys the property in accordance therewith, his creditors, in the absence of elements of estoppel, cannot attack the declaration or conveyance as fraudulent and subject the property to the satisfaction of their claims. ’ ’
We hold that neither Bobert A. Kletzing nor Lillie E. Kletzing ever owned any beneficial interest in said lot 9 of block 10 of Scott’s Addition to Eugene, Oregon, or in the stock of goods mentioned in the complaint, and that the plaintiff has no cause of suit against either of the defendants, and that the decree of the court below should be reversed.
The decree of the court below is reversed and this suit is dismissed.
Beversed. Suit Dismissed. Behearing Denied.